


Crown of Bones and Blooms

by Quillsofdeath



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, BAMF Women, Can definitely live without them, Can't live with men, Gen, Powerful Persephone, Zeus Being an Asshole (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24008263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillsofdeath/pseuds/Quillsofdeath
Summary: People forget the real story. They think the only way Kore would ever go to the underworld is if a man were involved. As if that were the only thing a girl could want. As if that were the only thing a girl could change for. As if a Queen needs a king.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Crown of Bones and Blooms

People forget the real story. They think the only way young, beautiful maiden Kore would ever go to the underworld is if a man were involved. Even then there is only three reason she would do such a thing: a man tricked her, a man kidnapped her, or a man stole her heart.

Always a man. As if that were the only thing a girl could want. As if that were the only thing a girl could change for. As if a Queen needs a king.

In the beginning nobody ever payed attention to little Kore. She was just a daughter of Demeter; she was only a maiden. The gods noted she was quite pretty when she danced during celebrations with flower crowns adorning her head, but otherwise she was quite forgettable. The deities of Olympus saw nothing except an innocent, pretty, little flower goddess. Little Kore who was a pretty decoration, much like the flowers she so loved. 

That was their own arrogance talking. They were wrong. 

Kore was so much more and most importantly- she knew it. Her bright eyes were always curious and watching. The goddess looked at the world around her and found it lacking no matter how much life she brought forth. She watched Zeus and felt her lips cut on sharp teeth as she bit back her anger and disappointment and embarrassment in what the so-called King of the Gods had made of himself. She saw Olympus as the stagnation it represented, and she snuck out. She was a child of the harvest and so she went to see it in action. 

Kore fell in love with the mortal realm, spending more time among humans than possibly any other god or goddess. It made sense. After all, she was never the goddess of flowers, that was just what the others had so carelessly assumed. It had not occurred to them that a little goddess could be powerful. She was the goddess of life and creation- she just enjoyed growing flowers. And because Kore was filled with burning Life, she was also filled with the cool embrace of Death. They were two sides of the same coin after all. One cannot exist without the other. Kore was so much more than just a young maiden. She was smart and cunning and sharp and dangerous and so unbelievably curious. 

They forget she was more than the name they tried to chain her to. 

Before Kore there was never a god named Hades. Before Kore there was an underworld, an entire realm, named Hades but there was no man sitting on a black throne. There was no elder brother or King of the underworld. There was never a man to lure the sweet innocent maiden flower goddess into the darkness.

No. Kore with her bitter, dangerous curiosity found the crevice in the ground. Little Kore was the one who tied back her hair and chose to climb down into the earth. Kore went down and down and down, every step taking her further from the halls of Olympus. Her feet and hands bloodied, her clothes dirty and snagged from leaning on the walls. Still she did not stop, did not waver, she went down, down, down. 

Kore was the first to step into Hades because she was curious, and she knew she was so much more than what Olympus tried to make her into. She wanted to be free, so no matter how dark, and damp, and cold it got, she continued to go down, down, down. 

Kore was the one who saw ghosts trapped for eternity with no hope or punishment because nobody cared about the dead, least of all the gods. Their mortal souls be damned. 

Kore was the one who saw a three headed puppy that was so sad and alone. 

Kore was the one who saw the furies slowly dying in the darkness as they clawed at their eyes. 

Kore was the one who saw the darkness and the cold, and the ghosts and monsters and she saw Life. 

As Kore traveled through Hades, she felt her very being ache for this realm and she felt at peace for the first time in her existence as she knew exactly what she needed to do. There was no way Zeus would appoint her as queen if she asked, and honestly, she refused to have anything she did be related to him except to say she did it to spite him. Instead, she would have to work for everything she wanted and everything these lost souls needed. And so, it was Kore who fought and bled and clawed for power over the underworld. 

The goddess of life appointed the judges. She named her giant puppy Spot and played with him for hours. She gave monsters jobs and trust. She lit up the cool darkness of death with the fire that was her life and soul. She filled Hades with life. Pomegranate trees and the most beautiful gardens for herself and the souls who were deemed worthy. Fields of Asphodel for the forgotten and forgettable. Thorns and poison for the damned. No matter what there was life where there used to only be stone and darkness. 

In return the ghosts and monsters carved her an ebony throne with love and loyalty and hope. A throne that was so much more than Zeus’ in every way that counts. 

Kore became a Queen through her own curiosity and power and determination and love.

And when Zeus felt the shift of power, he was so shocked he immediately summoned her to Olympus. When she arrived, he found a goddess that was so much more than any goddess should be, than any goddess he had allowed to become. Kore was death and life and destroyer and chaos bringer. She smiled with sharp teeth and blood red lips. Her skin was warm and bursting with life even as her gaze froze everyone they looked at. She met Zeus’ eyes, chin up, and refused to bow. She was power. She was destruction. She was creation. She was terrifying. 

Zeus could not leave Kore unbound by the weak chains he had so carelessly bound her with when he gave her that small, small, small name. She was too dangerous. She could destroy all of Olympus and create it anew because that was the power that thrummed with her every heartbeat. 

Demeter cried for her daughter. She could not, would not, understand how her precious flower child could be so full of poison and thorns. She wept for a daughter she that had only existed in her own mind. She was not the only goddess or god who were shocked and horrified by the maiden’s change. Unnoticed by all but the new Queen, Artemis and Athena both gave a small nod of respect to the maiden who escaped Zeus’ power long enough to build her own queendom.

In the end, however, it was decided that there could not be a goddess of such power left to run free. So, the oldest gods did what they did best: they caged and bound and cursed and ruined everything and anyone who could be as great, or greater, than them. 

Memories were changed and warped and stolen. 

And they unwittingly gave her everything she ever wanted. 

For half the year she was Persephone, the chaos bringer, the life, the innocent girl who fell down, down, down. 

For the other half of the year she was Hades, the god of the underworld, the eldest sibling of Zeus, the death, the most powerful of all gods. 

She was life and death. Persephone and Hades. The ruler of the largest realm, a realm that kept growing and would never stop. She was power. She was judgement. She was kept hidden away in the underworld where Olympus could forget and begin to believe their own lies. 

Just a girl who was kidnapped by Zeus’s wayward brother, they told themselves. Nothing to worry about. They stuffed their heads in the clouds and ignored the fear at the back of their throats. Fear of the goddess that would always be more. For when the time came, she was the one who would judge their souls and she would find them lacking. And she would outlive each and every one of them. For she was life and death. Destruction and creation. Persephone and Hades. 

The only man who played a role in her story was an ignorant, arrogant father who never saw how sharp her teeth were as she smiled prettily up at him. He never saw the blood and dirt under her nails as she climbed and clawed her way to power, just assumed she had been playing in flower beds. Never seeing just how smart she was behind her pretty maidenly body with her breasts and curves. It never occurred to him that wearing flower crowns from the day of her birth could make her dream of being a queen. An arrogant father who was stupid enough he let her keep her throne- one crafted out of love by her people unlike his which was his own design- who always determinedly looked away from her crown of bones and blooms. He never did understand that the sky was nothing in comparison to the realm of souls and monsters.

People have forgotten. The story twisted. They think a woman could never have ruled without a king. And they are wrong. King and Queen, Hades and Persephone, the underworld was Kore’s.


End file.
